This invention relates to the purification or sanitization of water. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for the purification of water contained in recirculating water systems. The present invention purifies water for drinking, recreational or industrial use, in a manner that significantly lessens or eliminates the need to use toxic chemicals in the purification process. The purification of water for these purposes has presented problems for many decades. Significant problems such as destruction of equipment and serious illness can result from use of unsanitized or improperly purified water.
The need for systems that provide adequate purification of water has increased to cover a broad range of applications. In addition to the provision of potable water, some other applications include purification of pools, spas, air conditioning and cooling towers, industrial waste and contaminated supplies of water. In order to meet these varied needs, a number of known systems and methods have been developed. Each of these known purification systems or methods, however, has presented some rather serious drawbacks. Specifically, although each of these systems has proven to be at least somewhat effective in the sanitization of water, they introduce additional problems as a by-product of their purification processes. These secondary problems are at times equal or greater in severity than the initial purification problem that they are designed to solve. Prior art water purification systems fall into three major categories: chemical based systems; copper ionization systems; and, ozone generating systems.
In almost all instances where sanitizing of water is accomplished by chemical based systems, significant amounts of chlorine and/or bromine are used. Consumers and those in the industry are becoming increasingly aware of the dangers of using chlorine and bromine based chemicals. For example, although many are under the perception that swimming pool water that is treated with chlorine or bromine based chemicals is safe and germ free. In most all cases, however, this is not correct. The chlorine and bromine based chemicals have only had limited success in eliminating or controlling certain prevalent forms of bacteria. Also, such chemical systems are also dramatically affected by the ultraviolet light and heat which bodies of water are frequently exposed to. This makes it difficult to achieve a continuous optimum level of chemicals in a body of water exposed to such elements.
In addition, water treated with such chemicals introduces other problems. For example, the quality of chlorine treated water in a pool usually introduces a strong odor, a bleaching effect and irritation or potential infection of mucus membranes and other body parts that may be exposed to such treated water. These problems result either from the presence of relatively high levels of such chemicals or the continued presence of bacteria that is unaffected by such chemicals. Even more importantly, the use of chlorine type chemicals in purification processes can generate harmful by-products. The result can be the creation of highly toxic gasses such as chlorine or chloroform, that are classified as carcinogens.
These drawbacks are further magnified by the fact that the organisms that are desired to be eliminated by such systems consume chemicals during the purification process. This requires a great deal of expense in connection with the continual purchase and use of large amounts of such chemicals, in order to maintain the body of water at a desired level of purification. Furthermore, in industrial applications such as cooling towers, pasteurizers, homogenizers, chillers, boilers and water storage tanks, well tanks and well heads, not only can chemical based water purification systems be expensive to use as stated above, but also can lead to the destruction of plant or other plumbing systems or plumbing apparatus over extended periods of time.
A second type of generally known water purification system is copper ionization. Although known copper ionization systems can provide fairly reasonable results in terms of water purification, these types of systems likewise present a number of drawbacks in terms of side effects and maintenance. Copper ion purification systems dispense metal ions into the water that result in undesired staining of pools and the like that contain the water. Copper ion systems are also rather slow acting in achieving a desired purification result. In addition, copper ion systems must be used in conjunction with the previously mentioned chemical based purification systems. These systems require constant shocking of the water to be purified and considerable more attention to pool chemistry and still require large amounts of chemicals to be used in conjunction with the copper ionization system.
Another type of known water purification system involves the creation of ozone gas to electrically transform the water to kill algae and bacteria and aid in the reduction of organics in the water. Such systems offer reasonably effective results in the purification of water, but, again, carry a number of negative factors with those results. In particular, these systems require the creation of ozone at the outset of the purification process. This requires very large amounts of electricity to power an ultraviolet light source or corona discharge elements that create the ozone. The ozone can be harmful to any people in the area if it is released into the environment surrounding the water. This problem is further compounded by the fact that ozone gasses generally sit between the lighter air and the heavier water in the area just above the surface of the water that would be often occupied by those using a pool, spa or similar water facility.
It is apparent from the prior art that a need exists for an additional method and apparatus for the purification of water that provides purification results that are, at a minimum, comparable to existing systems and that are more cost effective and do not suffer from the problems or drawbacks of existing prior art systems.